News

posted on 09 April 2008 14:11

We all know that HBAs are Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters to connect servers to storage area networks. Now we have to learn that a CNA is a Converged Network Adapter sending both data and Fibre Channel storage messages over the same Ethernet network.

Emulex has announced its LP21000 CNA family that support the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol. They send and receive both Ethernet and FCoE messages across a 10Gbit/s Ethernet link.

In effect Emulex has combined its FC HBA technology and an Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC) onto one card with an Ethernet I/O pipe to the outside world. The FC HBA driver code is the same as that used on existing Emulex HBAs. The FC to Ethernet migration possibilities are obvious.

Ameesh Divatia, SVP and GM for Emulex' Intelligent Network Products, said: "Enabling our customers to use a common architecture across both CNAs and HBAs provides a seamless migration path for deploying next generation FCoE connectivity solutions. Our goal is to preserve and leverage the substantial investments our customers have made in Fibre Channel technology and SAN management tools, while delivering the next generation products necessary to help transform their data center infrastructures."

Naturally Emulex is working with Cisco on this as well as with its own OEM customers such as EMC.

Barbara Robidoux, VP storage marketing at EMC, said: "FCoE can help deliver a seamless path for data center managers looking to converge multiple fabrics to help streamline operations in an effort to consolidate their environments onto a single network."

FCoE will take advantage of lossless Ethernet in the data center, when it arrives. A lossless Ethernet fabric provides the level of performance and reliable delivery of data required for enterprise storage environments. That is what FC provides at the moment and Ethernet does not.

QLogic has introduced its line of 8000 Series CNAs. It's the same CNA idea and QLogic is closely associated with Cisco and its new Nexus 5000 FCoE-supporting switch.

Steve Fastook, VP technical and commercial operations for CNBC, said: “Preliminary results from our evaluation of QLogic and Cisco equipment indicate that FCoE could be a solution to add bandwidth without rewiring as we increase the use of high resolution video and desktop editing.”

It all looks good for FCoE.

Brocade is bringing out its own line of HBAs. Logic dictates that it will bring out CNAs as well. The company is a supporter of FCoE after all.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}